Jackson Gundar arrived at 4:49pm on 07/08/09 after 13 hours of labor and 9 minutes of pushing! :) He weighed 7lbs 1 oz and was 19.5 inches long!

I woke up wednesday morning at about 4am and was having contractions so I decided to walk and see what happened. I woke James up around 6:30 and we called the doctor and was on our way! We got to the hospital around 7:45 and at this point I was dilated to 2cm and fully effaced. We walked and waited for my doctor to be done with a c-section and about 45 minutes later she came in and checked me again. I was dilated to 3cm so she went ahead and broke my water. From this point on, we dilated pretty much a cm an hour! At about 11:30 I got my epidural and was much more comfy! Mom and Dad even took a nap! Later that afternoon, we were told the news that it was time! My nurse said usually they have you start pushing before the doctor gets there so it was a good thing we didn't do that! We started pushing at 4:40 and Jackson was born at 4:49! He had to go to the nursery for the next 4 hours to get his blood sugars monitored though. While he was in there though, dad and everyone were able to visit and see him. I, unfortunately, started having blood pressure issues and after bloodwork, they realized I had developed preeclampsia from delivery. So, I was then pumped full of magnesium and was quite miserable! I was not allowed to breastfeed or anything, so I was kind of confined to the bed. :( Jackson finally came back to our room around 10pm and I was able to hold and feed him which was just awesome! He stayed with us from then on! The next evening I was able to get up and shower and change rooms and that made a huge difference. I felt great after that! We were able to go home friday night and he is doing great!

He is such a good baby! He doesn't cry more than 5 seconds unless he is getting his diaper changed. He was given a pacifier in the nursery at the hospital and they have become BFF, so that gets him through his changings. He loves it. He will also sit awake for a couple of hours at a time but just be content watching everything, so we are just in awe with everything. He is currently working his way back to breastfeeding and is doing pretty well today! We are just so pleased with how everything turned out and how spectacular he is.

I will post pics shortly!

We have technically made it to term! woohoo!

Today was our 37 week appt. Jackson has mom a bit worried with how much he likes to teeter on the edge "of danger" with everything. He may be a bit of a daredevil, I think. Jackson passed his non stress test with flying colors today! He was the most active after juice than he has ever been in the last 10 weeks and 20 NSTs. He, of course, was asleep at the start, so we had to drink some juice to wake him up. James thinks he does this just for the sugar. :)He would take after mom on that one. We were very thrilled to see this. He then had his ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels since they were the concern this past week. He actually has only dropped a small amount and this was not what the doctor anticipated was going to happen, so we were pretty shocked at this one. My placenta is still scoring a 3 (0 bein the best and 3 being the worst) but Jackson is gaining weight like a champ, so they are not concerned until that stops. He weighed in at an estimated 6lbs 12oz on the ultrasound today. According to this, he would be pushing 9lbs if he went full term.... WOW! With all of these things, my doctor anticipated that one of them would go into an "unsafe zone" so had told us to plan on getting induced today. Oh, the last thing was my blood pressure... it's high but not high enough to induce based on that. So, needless to say we got everything prepared and that included our friends and family (sorry guys!). After evaluating everything, my doctor decided we were gonna hold out a while longer. She promised James that next Monday would be the latest (James made her schedule it in front of him!) We are going to re-evaluate things on Thursday as well, but Monday would be the longest we would go. In the meantime, she stripped my membranes to try to make me go into labor on my own. OUCH! So, no news today..... we are sorry to get everyone ready for nothing! We'll keep you posted if we decide to go the natural route, otherwise, you can at least plan on next monday for sure!! :) And I say, get induced... we're not gonna promise he'll come that day even though James says he will because it's the home run derby! :)

Talk to you all soon!!

Well, it has been a doozy of a week. I chalk it up to the fact that Jackson knows my parents are on vacation. We headed to the hospital on monday night for contractions, AGAIN! We took some meds and calmed everything down and were able to leave again. At that point I was still only dilated to 1cm so everything was staying the same. Well, let's see... Tues... more contractions so I stopped by the dr's office and got checked again. same. Wed.... I went in to the dr's office in the morning and got checked. same as before. Went back to work and by the time the afternoon rolled around the pain was so bad I couldn't sit still, let alone concentrate. James came and picked me up and took me home. Well, when I got home I noticed I was spotting a bit, so called the dr's office and had to go back! I got hooked up to the monitors this time and it was registering irritability, but not contractions. Met with Mazdai who checked me again and this time told me I made a bit of progress in the 4 hours since she had checked me! I was more effaced but not more dilated. Wasn't expecting that answer! So, we went home and decided we'd go see the new Transformers since it just came out. So good! I asked James that night if he thought I should keep my thurs NST appt since I had just had one that day and he said yes, so this time I went in with my thank you notes and was going to get stuff done during this NST since they usually last for over an hour. Well, 20 min into this NST and the nurse comes in and says, "you're done, but the dr wants to see you." so this is a first. So, I am sitting on the table and in walks Mazdai who tells me I am contracting across the whole chart! I go, what? which of course causes her to start cracking up because here I am writing thank you notes and I'm not any more than just uncomfortable and registering contractions like crazy, but the day before I am in tears and only registering irritability. I tell you... Jackson.... you keep things interesting. So she said she wanted to check me since I was contracting regularly. we are still the same. So, she said, well I am on call this weekend so call me if you go into labor! Actually her exact words were... "you may go into labor later today or this weekend... I'm on call." so here I'm thinking... well, great. I am not going to know when I am since irritability hurts like hell and the contractions were just uncomfortable. Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll know when I am in labor since it's going to be probably the worst pain ever, but it just doesn't make sense I tell ya. So, I got things tied up at work just in case and have been contracting all night and day, but nothing really painful and they haven't changed. So I got a pedicure just in case! you know the toes have to look good for labor! :) I'm sure since my parents are coming home on sunday that things will calm down in time for them to make it home. :) In the meantime, we have prepared the car seats and gotten everything we can to prepare. I think James is nesting now instead of me because he can't sit still. ha. Thank goodness it's Friday because it's been a week! I'll keep you posted if anything changes, but I think we've gotten it out of our system for now. and yes, Jackson... I know you control everything at this point. No need to keep reminding me!

We didn't get many pictures from this morning but we did get one of him smiling again. His face is apparently smashed against the side so we only get part of his face, but still very cool to see his little lips and everything. Once again, hand is by the face at all times, so that's the other blob you see!

We had our ultrasound this morning Jackson is weighing in at an estimated 5lbs 11oz! He's getting there! So, we had the NST again where he freaked out on the monitors again, the stinker. They last for quite a while until they can actually get him to stop kicking them and register his heartbeat accurately. Then we met with Dr. Mazdai and went over how things have been going! Apparently on the ultrasound, my placenta was on its "last leg." As I told her, obviously nothing lasts as long as it should in my body! :) They rate it on a scale of 0 to 3 with 3 being the worst and mine was a 3. boo. They said it's still working and as long as he doesn't show signs of distress or lack of growth then it won't be a factor on whether they induce or not. We discussed that the contractions are still bothersome, but the ambien has been helping me sleep through them at night, so that is a definite plus. James was working late last week and said he watched me clutch my stomach and whine every 5 minutes in my sleep, so I have to say I was relieved I slept through that. We are also making a bit of progress as I am dilated to 1cm and 50% effaced. We are now taking bets on when he'll decide to arrive! :) So we're hanging in there and getting prepared for him to get here! Keep you posted if I have any more news!

Ok, I have been slacking!! I am sorry!! Jackson keeps me on my toes for sure. We have started the bi-weekly NST (Non Stress Tests) and I go in every monday and thursday morning at 8am and get hooked up to the monitors and we watch to see how Jackson's heart rate is and if I'm having contractions, etc. Well, we started out really well, but then Jackson decided he didn't want to cooperate the last couple of times. He tends to fall asleep on the monitor and then we have to have an ultrasound to make sure everything is ok. He scares the crap out of his parents! As soon as we start the ultrasound, he wakes back up and passes with flying colors and scores 8 out of 8 on their little test. whew. Well, I have still been having the episodes of contractions that has been diagnosed as irritable uterus, so my doctor stuck me on some anti-contraction meds. That was last monday. Well, last thursday morning, I had my NST and everything was fine, but by that afternoon, the contractions just felt different. I called the office and went back in and decided to have James take me. Good thing I did! We ended up revisiting the labor and delivery floor at the hospital again! Turns out I was contracting and am 50% effaced, so we went to the hospital and had to get a couple of shots to get the contractions to stop. After a few hours, things subsided and we were able to go home! Thank Goodness! So after a fantastic weekend of my baby shower and seeing friends, we went back to the doctor on Monday. My dr decided to go ahead and give me the steroid shots that will allow Jackson's lungs to develop just in case he decides to be impatient again! The little stinker. We were supposed to have an ultrasound today to see how big he is, but turns out the ultrasound tech is on vacation! So that will now be June 22nd. So, even with all of that, things have been going really well and we are just getting so excited for him to get here. We have his room all set up and we will be 34 weeks on Saturday! Even though we're so excited, he needs to wait until July since my parents will be on vacation from the 20th-28th and James's mom will be on vacation in Florida then too! James keeps lecturing him, so let's hope it works!! :) At some point, he has to listen to his parents right??? :)